“If you remotely download a keylogger onto people’s PCs without their consent, you may end up in prison. Microsoft does the same and it’s framed as benign, or “business as usual”.”According to a growing number of reports, Microsoft is still operated by anti-competitive thugs, who even without users’ consent take over Windows (prior versions, not Vista 10) and secretly download gigabytes of data for business reasons alone. Dumping Windows becomes imperative now, even versions prior to Vista 10. They’re all part of a botnet and Microsoft commandeers this botnet to do just about anything it wishes. It’s truly a menace, let alone a national security threat.

As Geek.com put it, “Microsoft may be pushing the [Vista 10] install files onto your system” even if you did not consent to that. Some people are paying for their bandwidth, so what Microsoft does here is abusive and it can, as already reported elsewhere, cause severe issues to corporate and home networks (not just reduction in productivity but also something akin to DDOS). Quoting the original report from The Inquirer:

MICROSOFT HAS CONFIRMED that Windows 10 is being downloaded to computers whether or not users have opted in.

An INQUIRER reader pointed out to us that, despite not having ‘reserved’ a copy of Windows 10, he had found that the ~BT folder, which has been the home of images of the new operating system since before rollout began, had appeared on his system. He had no plans to upgrade and had not put in a reservation request.

He told us: “The symptoms are repeated failed ‘Upgrade to Windows 10′ in the WU update history and a huge 3.5GB to 6GB hidden folder labelled ‘$Windows.~BT’. I thought Microsoft [said] this ‘upgrade’ was optional. If so, why is it being pushed out to so many computers where it wasn’t reserved, and why does it try to install over and over again?

If you remotely download a keylogger onto people’s PCs without their consent, you may end up in prison. Microsoft does the same and it’s framed as benign, or “business as usual”. █

Summary: Windows surveillance expands retroactively, making its way into platforms other than Windows and also expanding to predecessors of Vista 10

IN TERMS of sales and technical weaknesses, Vista 10 is a huge disaster, doing probably worse than its predecessor, which also did worse than the mythically ‘great’ Windows Vista. It really is a total disaster, but Microsoft employees won’t say this to the media for fear of personal retribution (firing).

“…Microsoft is putting Bing inside Cyanogen OS, not just from the company Cyanogen but also in OnePlus.”The unprecedented spyware problem is no longer limited to just Vista 10, so users of Windows on PCs are all affected. They should escape all of Windows as soon as possible because even older versions have spying features silently added to them. Well, this has actually been known for a while and we wrote about it several weeks ago. Now it appears as though more people become aware of it (the latest headline says “Updates Make Windows 7 and 8 Spy On You Like Windows 10″). Based on [1-3], Microsoft is putting Bing inside Cyanogen OS, not just from the company Cyanogen but also in OnePlus. This company, OnePlus, should dump Cyanogen OS, for reasons we covered here before [1, 2].

“Microsoft has become just a surveillance company and Windows the surveillance platform.”“The operating system sends a weekly note that includes a list of websites children have visited, how many hours per day they have spent on the computer, and for how long they have used their favourite apps, according to reports.”

Microsoft has become just a surveillance company and Windows the surveillance platform.

These claims are pulled directly from Microsoft, or rather, they are being pushed by Microsoft onto gullible journalists or complicit ‘journalists’. The author is a known Microsoft booster with history. Microsoft’s own figures hysterically debunk some early claims that the media cited a lot (between 45 million and 55 million ‘upgrades’ after 3 days). We warned that these were baseless claims from the rumour mill and Microsoft’s trolls army.

This time too we cannot trust the figures since they come from Microsoft. Based on how it has always gamed the numbers (‘sales’ not meaning actual sales or even users), we know these are lies. Look at web statistics from some of the more respected sources. Maybe 5% market share (or less) is what Microsoft’s latest beast has got at the moment, which given the price and other exceptional factors, is truly (and quite frankly) pathetic. █

Summary: Microsoft is failing to convince people to ‘upgrade’ Windows, whereupon business models are being altered and migration to Linux-based platforms (like Android) continues uninterrupted

WHILE Microsoft-connected media like the BBCpersists with Microsoft propaganda like this nonsense or this one puff piece (a couple among several articles we found, all singing along the lines of Vista 10 being the last version of Windows), it is becoming abundantly clear that the era of Windows is ending. People refuse to adopt the latest versions of Windows, so now comes spin like this: “Reiterating the company’s “Windows as a service” philosophy, Nixon said the firm is planning no new OS version launches in the future. “Right now we’re releasing Windows 10, and because Windows 10 is the last version of Windows, we’re all still working on Windows 10,” he added.”

The name Nixon is just so perfect here. Trust Nixon.

Vista 8 was so bad (worse than ME and Vista in terms of adoption) that only a fool would think Vista 10 can change that. Remember that hype/PR ahead of Vista 8; it’s all promises and bribed-for reviews. Several years after Vista 8 came out there is still a rush towards an operating system more than half a decade old (Vista 7) or some variants of GNU/Linux. The largest branches of the British government are still struggling with a 14-year-old version of Windows and refuse to move on with the upgrade treadmill. See this new report which says: “UK government departments still running Windows XP are now doing so entirely on their own. A framework support agreement between the Crown and Microsoft guaranteeing the release of special security patches for PCs still on Windows XP has ended after one year. That deal – revealed here – expired on April 14 and it’s been decided it will not be rolled into a second year, Microsoft has told The Reg.”

For Microsoft it has become impossible to charge for Windows and expect to gain at the expense of GNU/Linux, Android, etc. Now, as Pogson put it, they need to compete on price. “No longer will the price be hidden,” he wrote. “Consumers who can do the maths will seek alternatives if for no other reason than comparison shopping. GNU/Linux will prevail because there’s no OS out there that gives as great a service for $0 as GNU/Linux. Amen.”

The “PC” is dying based on figures that are derived from sales and Google, whose flagship platform (Android) now commands the lion’s share of the mobile market, says that mobile search tops desktop “Google says that more people now use Google Search on mobile devices than they do on desktops,” to quote just one report. The delusion that Windows will always be around and be used by a majority is a sort of paid propaganda Microsoft still relies on. █

05.03.15

Summary: Time for the Establishment in the UK to abandon the out-of-support Windows XP (from 2001) and join the next generation of computing, which increasingly revolves around GNU/Linux and Free/libre software, supported by truly British companies

“Windows 8 market share grows just 2.5 percent in year since Windows XP’s demise,” says this new report from the British media, which bases its claim on Microsoft-friendly or Windows-centric sites (these are the sites that relinquish their logs and betray visitors’ privacy). Windows “XP use takes the biggest dip to 15.93, down just over one percent,” it says, showing that Vista 8 is not being adopted despite being the latest version of Windows.

“Pirate Party UK (PPUK) is probably the only political party that would actively promote GNU/Linux if it got elected or at least earned some seats.”Microsoft is clearly in a state of crisis as governments refuse to adopt Vista 8. Some parts of the British government are still clinging on to Windows XP (as foolish and irresponsible as that is); we recently wrote about the Met and about the NHS. Now it turns out that “Windows XP support deal [is] not renewed by [the British] government, which is an important step. They should migrate to GNU/Linux because currently they waste about ~$10,000 per Windows desktop per year, according to some estimates. Surely GNU/Linux can be both cheaper and more secure than that, but the cited article spins that in an alarmist fashion to make it sound as though the British government has no choice but to pay Microsoft some more. “The government has not renewed its £5.5m Windows XP support deal with Microsoft,” it says, “despite thousands of computers across Whitehall still running the ancient software, leaving them wide open to cyber attacks.”

“No. Use of Windows itself leaves PCs open to attack,” iophk remarked about it. Right now they should move to GNU/Linux, which is becoming a standard not just in the server room but also in devices such as phones and tablets. Large OEMs in the UK now distribute laptops with GNU/Linux preinstalled and supported.

Ignore the Microsoft propaganda which seeks to make the only choice a choice between versions of Windows. See this kind of propaganda from Mark Hachman again (one of the most recent Microsoft boosters in IDG), who probably played along with some kind of a PR campaign, based on our humble assessment. We see the same kind of marketing spam (disguised as ‘articles’) in other corporate media sites, grooming Microsoft and promoting Windows as though it’s still loved, despite Vista 8 marking the end of Windows monoculture (people are gradually moving elsewhere — other form factors and operating systems).

There is an election coming very soon and a new government will take form/shape, maybe a coalition government. Taxpayers’ money will hopefully not be wasted supporting a criminal company like Microsoft anymore; it’s time to end this heist, which depended on back room deals, lobbying, and various abuses that we have shown here before. Technically speaking, Windows in the government makes no sense at all. From a financial point of view, it’s more like suicide. Pirate Party UK (PPUK) is probably the only political party that would actively promote GNU/Linux if it got elected or at least earned some seats. █

Summary: Windows is not designed to be secure and Microsoft is not even trying to make it secure when advised on how to make it so

YESTERDAY we wrote about the latest extensive evidence that Skype is a spy. Microsoft knows damn well that it is being used to spy on people, but it does not bother hardening the proprietary software program or even fix critical bugs that facilitate wiretapping (e.g. through weak encryption). Security is simply not the goal.

“Security is simply not the goal.”Today we learn that the NSA, which Microsoft tells about flaws before even fixing them (hence providing the NSA with back door access), sure is enjoying access to the latest version of Windows even if it is fully patched and up to date. For several months now Microsoft just didn’t bother patching the holes. Google, which banned Windows for internal use but remains negatively affected by Google users who are on Windows-running PCs, shows Microsoft a serious flaw (local back door) in the very latest Windows. Microsoft just simply does nothing for three months (except showing the NSA, as usual), whereupon Google increases pressure on Microsoft: [via]

Google has made public the details of a security vulnerability in Windows 8.1 a mere 90 days after disclosing it to Microsoft, sparking debate over the wisdom of the online giant’s Project Zero security initiative.

The bug, which was privately reported to Microsoft in September, can potentially allow a logged-in user to execute code on Windows 8.1 machines with administrator privileges.

What we learn from this is that Google tried responsible disclosure, as was the case when the OpenSSL flaw was discovered by Google, well before a Microsoft-connected firm gave it a name, a logo, and very irresponsibly sent out the word, even before OpenSSL’s own site was patched.

Google waited patiently for months, but Microsoft is simply not interested in the security of Windows. Those who are using Windows are not able to patch the flaw themselves because it is proprietary software. It serves to show why every company — not just individual — should shun Windows where security is a priority (it’s a top priority everywhere). Sony is being severely hit by a doxing problem that reportedly started with cracking of Microsoft Windows. █

01.02.15

Summary: Even the most Microsoft-friendly Web surveys (where Windows-oriented sites are grossly overrepresented) show a sharp decline in Windows usage and gains are attributed to Chromebooks

IN THIS GNU- and Linux-dominated world (except in desktops/laptops) we need not write so often about the demise of Windows. In fact, we have not been doing that for months. Windows is rotting on its own while platforms like RHEL and Android thrive.

December Was a Disaster for Windows 8.x…Why Aren’t We Hearing about It?

[...]

Windows 8 and 8.1 combined seemed to have lost a whooping 7.07% market share! They went down from 18.65% in November to 11.58% in December. That is something! Why aren’t we hearing about this in all the (pro-Windows) tech sites??

For those who wonder what has been gaining at Windows’ expense (other than mobile devices where Android reigns supreme), “Data reveals Chrome OS might have been a roaring success in December”. To quote this report: “Stats published earlier today by analytics company NetApplications suggests that Google’s operating system, Chrome OS, might have a bumper month thanks possibly to Christmas sales.

“Data compiled for the month of December 2014 shows that Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 suffered significant dips while Windows XP and OSes classified as “Other” have increased significantly.”

08.20.14

“Influential writer Esther Dyson (pictured here in 2008) popularized the term “vaporware” in her November 1983 issue of RELease 1.0.” — Wikipedia on vaporware (image originally posted to Flickr by eirikso)

Summary: Microsoft’s Windows-powered services are failing and Windows gets bricked by Microsoft patches, whereupon we are seeing yet more of Microsoft’s vapourware tactics (focusing in imaginary, non-existent versions of Windows)

Patch early and patch often is the advice of security professionals when it comes to software updates.

After all, who needs to be left wide open to hackers and malware writers when the solution is delivered by the software’s maker?

Yet sysadmins will be increasingly leery of applying such an approach to Windows systems following Microsoft’s latest botch job.

On 12 August Microsoft released 40 updates for Internet Explorer, Windows 7 and Windows 8 Pro.

Vista 8 is such an utter mess (worse than Vista) that the editor of InfoWorld at IDG, Eric Knorr, decided to start advertising Microsoft vapourware. Shame on IDG and Knorr. As we showed before, Microsoft had started Vista 8 vapourware half a year before Vista 7 was even released. This was done through known Microsoft boosters. Gavin Clarke was the first. █

“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”